JPH0362544A - Probe device - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Summary] This bulletin contains application data before electronic filing, so abstract data is not recorded.

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] [Industrial Application Field] The present invention relates to a technology for testing semiconductor devices, and in particular to a technology that is effective when used to continuously perform probe testing on wafer chips, etc. .

[Conventional technology]

A probe device is used to detect transistors, integrated circuits (IC, LS, etc.) placed on a wafer in the manufacturing process of semiconductor devices.
It is used to measure the electrical characteristics of chips (I, etc.) and determine the quality of the chip. Chips that have been determined to be defective are removed prior to an assembly process in which they are assembled into a package or the like. This reduces costs or improves productivity.

In addition, chips that are determined to be defective are marked with ink or other markings, classified based on disk data, etc.
work: After communication processing such as local area network is performed, processing such as unloading is performed.

7 and 8 are a plan view and a front view showing an example of a conventional probe device.

A test head 2 , a substage 3 , and a loader section 5 disposed from a wafer cassette 4 are connected to both sides of the probe body 1 . The probe body 1 includes an insert ring 6,
An X-Y stage 7 for transporting the wafer to the measurement position of the insert ring 6; a main stage 8 mounted on the X-Y stage 7; Two Y rails 9 that guide the Y rail 9 in the direction (as seen from the loader section 5 side) and the Y rail 9
It is composed of two X-rails 10 that guide the direction.

In addition, the main stage 8 is placed on the fourth of the insert ring 6.
An inspection section 11 is provided for contacting the electrode section of the upper wafer.

Next, the operation of the probe device with the above configuration will be explained.

A predetermined number of wafers are arranged in the wafer cassette 4 at regular intervals in the vertical direction, and can be taken in and out individually regardless of the wafers above and below. One of these is substage 3
and then moved to the main stage 8.

When a wafer is set on the main stage 8, the X-Y stage 7 is moved to the Y rail 9 and the
While moving on the rail 10, it is positioned below the insert ring 6. Next, the main stage 8 is raised by a drive means (not shown), and the measurement point of the wafer comes into contact with the inspection section 11. Here, a predetermined measurement is performed using the test head 2.

Regarding such a probe device, for example,
There is one described in JP-A-56-130936.

By the way, the present inventor studied continuous processing of wafers in a probe device.

The following are the techniques studied by the present inventor, and the outline thereof is as follows.

In other words, as mentioned above, the current probe device has one main stage and one substage, and while the first wafer is being processed on the main stage, the second wafer is extracted on the substage. After the wafer has been transported, pre-alignment is performed, and in this state the wafer waits until the inspection of the first wafer is completed.
The second wafer is measured in place of the second wafer, and the third wafer is extracted and transported on the substage.

[Problem to be solved by the invention]

However, in a probe device equipped with l main stages and sub-stages as described above, the measurement section is in a standby state after the preceding wafer finishes its inspection until it starts inspecting the next wafer. Yes, but not tested. The loss time caused by this increases as the mass productivity of semiconductor devices is increased, causing a reduction in throughput in wafer inspection.

Of course, large-scale processing becomes possible by adding more probe devices, but the alignment mechanism requires laser elements and CCDs.
Since it is constructed using expensive parts such as charge-coupled devices (charge-coupled devices), the cost of the system increases.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide a probe device that has a simple configuration and eliminates test waiting time.

The above and other objects and novel features of the present invention will become apparent from the description of this specification and the accompanying drawings.

[Means to solve the problem]

A brief overview of typical inventions disclosed in this application is as follows.

That is, the probe device transfers the sub-aligned wafer from the sub-stage of the loader section to the main stage and performs fine alignment, and then transports the main stage to an inspection position and performs blowing on the wafer. A plurality of the main stages are installed so that they can be moved without interfering with each other.

[Effect]

According to the above-mentioned means, by providing a plurality of main stages, when one main stage is performing blobbing at the inspection position, another wafer can be loaded or unloaded on the other stage. , continuous processes are processed in a state where they are shared by multiple main stages. Therefore, loss time in wafer replacement processing can be reduced, and productivity of semiconductor devices can be improved.

〔Example〕

FIG. 1 is a plan view showing an embodiment of a probe device according to the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a front view thereof. Note that in the following, a case where two main stages are installed is illustrated. Furthermore, in this embodiment, the same reference numerals are used for parts that are the same or have the same functions as those in FIGS. 7 and 8, and therefore, redundant explanations will be omitted below.

As shown in FIG. 1, the probe body 1 in this embodiment
has one X rail 12a and 12b on each side in the X direction.
are arranged in parallel, and each of Y drive parts 13a and 13b as a first drive part is slidably fitted onto each of these drive parts.

The Y drive units 13a and 13b have the same configuration,
FIG. 3 (plan view) shows the Y drive section 13a.
and FIG. 4 (rear view). Vibrator-shaped Y drive section 13
A bar-shaped Z rail 14a is erected on the upper part of a.

An X-Z drive section 15a serving as a second drive section is fitted onto the Z rail 14a so that it can move up and down in the vertical direction (two directions) and rotate freely horizontally. The X-Z drive unit 15a has a Y rail 1 perpendicular to the X rail 12a.
6a is attached so as to be able to move forward and backward, and an X-Y stage 7a is fixedly installed at the tip thereof. Further, a main stage 8a on which a wafer is placed is mounted on the XY stage 7a.

The above is the configuration of the Y drive section 13a side, but the Y drive section 1
The 3b side includes a Z rail 14b, an X-Z drive section 15b, a SY rail 16b, and an Sx-y stage 7b.

It is provided with a main stage 8b and has the same configuration as in FIGS. 3 and 4. Note that one alignment mechanism 17 for performing alignment on the wafer is shared, and is provided between the main stages 8a and 8b so as not to interfere with the movement of each.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram showing details of the control system for the drive section.

The main control unit 20 that centrally controls the probe device uses the output of the operation panel 18 for inputting various setting values and commands, and the output of the sensor unit 19 for detecting stage position information and the like as human power information. The main control section 20 is configured using a CPU (central processing unit), and is combined with various peripheral circuits and memory to form a so-called microcomputer. The following four control units are connected to the operation panel 18 and operate based on the output information thereof.

That is, the main stage 8a control unit 21 executes the control operation of the main stage 8a, the main stage 8b control unit 22 executes the control operation of the main stage 8b, and the substage control unit 2 executes the control operation of the substage 3.
3. Handling control unit 2 that controls handling for loading and unloading wafers on each stage
Four control units of No. 4 are connected.

Main stage 8a control section 21 and main stage 8b
The control unit 22 includes a main stage 8a.

Main stage 8a drive 0125.8b for driving motor 29.30 for driving main stage 8b. Main stage 8b
A drive unit 26 is connected. In addition, actually x, y,
A control section, a drive section, and a motor are provided for each direction of z, but for the sake of simplicity, they are collectively referred to as "main stage control." Furthermore, a handling drive unit 28 is connected to the handling control unit 24 for driving a motor 32 that serves as a drive source for the handling mechanism.

Next, the operation of the embodiment with the above configuration will be explained with reference to the above-mentioned figures and the flowchart of FIG. 6.

First, a wafer to be inspected is set in the wafer cassette 4 (step 61). Next, after performing initial settings by operating the operation panel 18 (step 62), the power of the apparatus is turned on (step 63).

As a result, the wafer is taken out from the wafer cassette 4 according to the program stored in the main control unit 20 in advance.
This is placed on the substage 3 (step 64), and prealignment is performed (step 65).

Then, based on the sensor output, it is determined that the wafer is placed on the sub-stage 3. Step 66>
It is determined whether the probe test on the main stage 8a side has been completed (Step 67), and if it has not been completed, it is subsequently determined whether the probe test on the main stage 8b side has been completed (Step 68>). If it is determined that the process has ended, Ueno\ is made to stand by on the sub-stage 3 (step 69), and the process returns to step 66 to repeat the subsequent process.

On the other hand, if it is determined in step 67 that the inspection on the main stage 8a side has been completed, the control system of the main stage 8a control section 20 and main stage 8a drive section 25 is operated to move the main stage 8a to the vicinity of the substage 3.

Here, the Nth wafer in the inspection section is unloaded from the main stage 8a, and the uninspected (N+1)th wafer is loaded onto the main stage 8a (step 70). It is determined whether or not (step 71), and if so, it waits.

If the main stage 8b is not in alignment, fine alignment of the wafer on the main stage 8a is performed, and reference chip detection is performed (step 73).
) After that, it is determined whether the wafer setup is complete (step 75).

If it is determined in step 75 that the main stage 8b is not being set up, it is determined whether or not the main stage 8b is being blown (step 78). If it is not being blown, the main stage 8a is set up again. The control system of the control section 21 and the main stage 8a drive section 24 is operated to move the main stage 8a directly below the inspection section (probe needle) 11 of the insert ring 6. At this time, as shown in FIGS. As shown, the x-Z driving section 15a is used for positioning in the X and Z directions, and the Y driving section 13a is used for positioning in the Y direction.

Here, probing is performed on the designated chip (step 80).

Next, it is determined whether or not the main stage 8b is exchanging wafers (step 81), and if it is, the main stage 8a cannot be moved to the substage 3, so it remains on standby (step 81). 82
). On the other hand, when the wafer replacement on the main stage 8b is denied in step 81, the sub-stage 3 is considered to be vacant and the processing from step 66 onward is repeated in order to move the main stage 8a.

Incidentally, steps 70 to 82 are processes performed on the main stage 8a side, but the same processes as those performed on the main stage 8a side are also performed on the main stage 8b side, only the position is reversed. This main stage 8b
Steps 83 to 94 show the processing on this side, but the explanation of the processing contents will be omitted since it will be redundant.

As described above, according to this embodiment, by providing two main stages, when one main stage is in the process of blobbing, the other one is loading or unloading, and this is done alternately. Since the probing is performed on the wafer, the wafer can be efficiently blown.

In other words, when the Nth wafer is undergoing pre-alignment on the main stage 8a, the (N+1)th wafer is set from the substage 3 to the main stage 8b, and alignment is performed on the substage 3.
It is waiting in the position shown in Figure 1. Then, when the wafer on the main stage 8a moves to the after-probing process, the main stage 8b starts probing instead.

The Nth 0 wafer on the main stage 8a is unloaded, and the (N+2)th wafer is set on the main stage 8a from the substage 3 instead. Thereafter, this operation is repeated alternately. Therefore, it becomes possible to significantly reduce the loss time that occurs when changing wafers before and after performing blowing.

Above, the invention made by the present inventor has been specifically explained based on Examples, but it goes without saying that the present invention is not limited to the Examples and can be modified in various ways without departing from the gist thereof. stomach.

For example, in the above embodiment, two main stages are provided, but the number is not limited to this and may be any number.

〔Effect of the invention〕

Among the inventions disclosed in this application, the effects obtained by typical ones are as follows.

That is, the probe device transfers a sub-aligned wafer from a sub-stage of a loader section to a main stage to perform fine alignment, and then transports the main stage to an inspection position to probe the wafer. Since a plurality of the main stages are installed so that they can be moved without interfering with each other, the loss time in wafer exchange processing is reduced.
It becomes possible to improve the productivity of semiconductor devices.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a plan view showing one embodiment of the probe device according to the present invention, FIG. 2 is a front view thereof, FIG. 3 is a plan view showing details of the Y drive section according to the present invention, and FIG. 5 is a block diagram showing details of the control system, FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing a processing example of the present invention, and FIGS. 7 and 8 show an example of a conventional probe device. FIG. 2 is a plan view and a front view. 1...Probe body, 2...Test head, 3...
- Substage, 4... Wafer cassette, 5... Loader section, 6... Insert ring, 7a, 7b...
X-Y stage, 8a, 8b・φ・main stage, 9
...Y rail, 10...X rail, 11...inspection section, 12a, 12b...X rail, 13a, 13b.
・・Y drive part, 14a, 14b・--Z rail, 15a
...X-Z drive unit, 16a...Y rail, 17...
- Alignment mechanism, 18... Operation panel, 19... Sensor section, 20... Main control section, 21... Main stage 8a control section, 22... Main stage 8b control section,
23... Sub-stage control section, 24... Handling control section, 25... Main stage 8a drive section, 26
...Main stage 8b drive section, 27...Sub stage drive section, 28...Handling drive section, 29.3
0.31.32...Motor. 61L, 5b: Main station 3 Figure 31 Y drive section diagram

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. After fine alignment is performed by transferring the sub-aligned wafer from the sub-stage of the loader section to the main stage, the main stage is transferred to an inspection position and the wafer is probed. What is claimed is: 1. A probe device for performing the above-mentioned operations, characterized in that a plurality of the main stages are installed so that the main stages can be moved without interfering with each other. 2. The main stage is two, each of which has a first drive section slidably supported by at least one guide rail arranged in parallel at a predetermined interval, and a first drive section that is slidably supported in the direction of movement of the drive section. The probe device according to claim 1, further comprising a second drive section that supports the main stage so as to be movable in two different orthogonal directions.